A Different Plan
by sinisteruto
Summary: What if Obito had a different motive to attack Konoha on the day of the kyubi incident all those years ago, how different would the storyline have panned out? NOT a yaoi!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or anything else that I might use for inspiration.

"You called for me, Obito nii-sama?" asked Naruto with an even tone, staring at his masked sensei/brother/father/leader with eyes showing no real emotion, no hate or love whatsoever, an ice cold blue that made people feel like their very soul was being disected.

The 12 year old shinobi prodigy was a little above average in height compared to boys of his age with spiky sunkissed hair, dark blue eyes, and three whisker like lines on each of his cheeks, wearing a black tight fitting top with the standard blue Akatsuki pants, white leg warmers, and dark blue shinobi sandals.

The mask man was however unaffected by the lack of emotion, he understood his student very well. He knew that Naruto thought highly of him, and in truth, he thought very highly of the kid himself. Their relationship was good, their teamwork, both physically and intellectually was even better, and most importantly, the boy was 150 percent behind the moon's eye plan and had promised to do everything within his abilities to achieve that goal. Needless to say, sensei and student were the best of friends.

"Yes I did, I have some very important news for you." said Obito with his regular deep and sinister voice, but with traces of pride and excitement that he couldn't quite hide from his tone, or perhaps, his prized student just knew him that well.

Obito is a rather tall man with spiky black hair and a mask with a spiral like design that covers the entirety of his face with the exception of his right eye, wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it and a high collar, blue shinobi pants, white leg warmers, and dark blue shinobi sandals.

"Important news? For me?" asked Naruto with a quirked eyebrow, his mind running a million miles per second trying to figure out what news his nii-sama could possibly have that would be of direct concern for him. In the end, he figured that whatever it was probably involved either the recent invasion of Konoha by Orochimaru, or, it had something to do with his biological parents, but hopefully, was about him finally getting permission to officially join the Akatsuki ranks.

"Yes, I believe the time has finally come for our brothers and sister of the Akatsuki to finally meet you. If you go to your bedroom and open your wardrobe, you will find that I have taken the liberty to replace your old clothes with our standard uniform. Congratulations." Obito said with a little amusement, holding back a small chuckle at the blonde's elated expression, an uncharacteristicly wide grin splitting his face into two.

"I don't doubt my abilities at all, I'm more than ready for this, but..." Naruto trailed off.

"But what?" Obito asked, cocking his head to the side curiously.

"Why all of a sudden, I thought you wanted to wait a bit longer, even Zetsu doesn't believe that I'm old enough?" asked Naruto.

"Hmmm...well, Itachi was only a year older than you when I allowed him to join, and he never had any problems completing any of his missions. I wouldn't worry about what other people think if I were you. I know my students better than anyone else, if I say you're ready, it is because you really are." Obito explained.

"I see...but that isn't what I meant, I thought you wanted me to kill Orochimaru as a sort of qualification test, what happened to that plan?" asked Naruto, causing Obito to almost sweatdrop at his own forgetfulness. It was unlike him to forget such important details, or any kind of details for that matter, maybe he was more excited about his student's ascention in the ranks then he might have thought.

"Don't worry about that for now, I have decided to postpone that little errand. Perhaps in a few years, three years, four max." replied the Akatsuki leader.

"I see, this is because of Uchiha Sasuke getting injected with Orochimaru's cursed seal isn't it? You think that Sasuke would do anything to get revenge on Itachi, even join Orochimaru?" asked Naruto with the habitually raised right eyebrow.

_'Heh, he doesn't miss anything does he? Like father like son I guess.' _thought Obito with amusement, his mind involuntarily taking a trip down memory lane, back to the day that he'd gotten his hands on the yellow flash's heir about twelve years ago.

It had been almost too easy if he had to be honest with himself, that, or it was just too good to be true. Obito had known from the start that the chances of singehandedly destroying a Yellow Flash lead Konoha, even with the Kyubi under his control would have been incredibly slim, he'd known from the minute the idea had given birth to itself in his mind. That is why he'd conceived another plan, one that could, would, and did serve as a back up for his original plan. He'd smiled to himself for almost a whole week after the plan's conception, the video images of Minato-sensei's possible reactions contantly playing over and over inside his head.

The plan had been simple enough, at least, according to Obito. He would have to execute the plan when Kushina gave birth, there was no better window of opportunity than that one, any other time would have been suicide. Kushina was an incredibly powerful shinobi, and an even more powerful jinchuuriki, defeating her would not come without a heavy price, and the possibility of losing was discouraging as well. On top of that, if the situation became unfavorable for her, she could call on Minato-sensei for back-up at anytime and from literally anywhere in the world, no no no, it had to be during childbirth, when she would be at her most vulnerable.

So he'd done it, he'd taken advantage of the situation and used Naruto to seperate them, and than he'd unsealed the Kyubi and summoned the beast smack in the middle of Konoha. Of course, Minato-sensei had followed him with his prized space-time ninjutsu and saved Kushina from getting crushed by her own prisoner, he'd even followed him and the Kyubi to Konoha and seemed to be easily negating the Kyubi's assualt.

That's when Obito had realised that he'd have to get involved. So he'd attacked Minato directly, allowing the Kyubi to continue with it's rampage unhindered. But he'd been defeated and forced to flee for his life with his tail between his legs and the Kyubi, without him to protect it, had been made short work of by Minato-sensei and Kushina.

Minato had tried to seal the Kyubi into his son, believing him to be the child of prophesy, haah, that idea had been thrown right out of the window when he returned to his house only to find baby Naruto dead in his crib, with a kunai imbedded through his little chest straight through the heart with a note attached to it. The note reading...

'I always win, I have done so in the past, I have done so today, and I will do so in the future. You may have won the battle, but I will win the war!'

At the time, the Hokage didn't have the luxury to breakdown and wallow in self pity, for he had a whole village to protect, perhaps Naruto might have lived if he'd taken Kushina back to him instead of the Konoha hospital, perhaps Kushina would have been able to protect him or even use one of his kunai to call him back, hindsight was such a bitch. Because of his son's premature death, the Hokage had decided to seal the Kyubi into himself and become the next jinchuuriki, that was until he received word from the hospital that Kushina had made an unexpected and miraculous recovery. She'd returned to the battlefield and re-sealed the bijuu into herself. Minato would have serious talks with her in the future about some of the Uzumaki clan bloodline secrets she was still keeping from him, but at that point time, with the burden of informing her of their son's fate looming over his head, he couldn't have been bothered to question anything of the sort.

Of course, Minato didn't know that the corpse of his son was actually a Zetsu parasite clone. By absorbing a small portion of a target's chakra, a white zetsu clone had the ability to execute a perfect transformation that was undetectable and remained active even in death, therefore, not even a sharingan, rinnegan, or byakugan could see through it. In fact, it wasn't really a transformation, but rather, a shape shifting ability. Obito wondered how his former sensei would react if...or rather, when he met his son again, how would Kushina react?

Obito had been reluctant to raise a kid, not really liking kids very much and too busy anyway to ever raise a child. So Naruto had spent the first five years of his life inside a powerful genjutsu. Inside the genjutsu, Obito had played the roles of father, brother, and sensei to the growing child, who was in reality synced to the Gedo Mazo and Hashirama's living clone that Madara cultivated from Hashirama's cells.

This provided the child with all the nutrition he needed to grow up and remain one of, if not the healthiest child in the world, it also helped that he was a combination of Uzumaki and Senju heritage, yes, Obito knew about the Yondaime Hokage's true lineage, as it was obvious that he was Tobirama's grandson. Okay it wasn't that obvious if you didn't have an ancient legendary shinobi who everyone thought to be dead as your mentor, but still, Obito thought it should have been.

There was however more of a reason for syncing the blonde Uzumaki-Senju with Hashirama's living clone, the idea had been for Naruto to one day completely absorb the clone and therefore obtain Hashirama's abilities at full power and control, without the limitations that Obito, Zetsu, and even Madara had. It had taken a whole five years for Naruto to absorb the clone, hence, Obito's decision to end the genjutsu on the kid and commense his training in the shinobi arts.

Just as expected, the boy, like his father, was a ninjutsu genius and like his mother, a great talent in the sealing arts even for an Uzumaki. He was also a great intellectual and had a natural talent in the reflex and speed department much like his dad. Obito didn't have to work very hard to win the boy's approval and to get him to see the world from his point of view, the time they spent together in the genjutsu had been more fruitful than Obito could have ever imagined, it meant that Obito had a five year old relationship with the boy at the start of his training without actually really doing anything, in other words, he'd already won the boy's admiration, love, and trust already.

Naruto was a well kept secret, not even Nagato and Konan knew about him, and Itachi didn't even know that he had a sibling apprentice. Well, it didn't really matter anymore, Nagato and Konan would find out as soon as today, and Itachi would find out with the others in the next Akatsuki meeting.

"Yes, I'm curious to see how Sasuke plans to outwit the Snake Sannin, time will only tell." said Obito.

"So you're leaving Orochimaru to him, strange that Sasuke already has a mission for Akatsuki despite him not even knowing of our existence." said Naruto.

"Hmmm...is that a hint of jealousy that I sense? Unbecoming of you isn't it, something as petty as that?" asked Obito retorically.

"I knew the sharingan could cause hallucinations, but I didn't think that it applied to the user of the eye as well. In any case, to answer your question, I don't care who kills Orochimaru, as long as he dies, period. I was only expressing my concern because of his ring, the main reason I wanted to kill him myself was so that I can retrieve the ring he stole from us. I can't become an official member without that." explained the blonde.

"Hn, you need not worry about that, Zetsu has already found the location of the ring. In fact, he has gone to retrieve it for you himself, he should be back any minute now." Obito said.

"I see, well in that case, let me go and make preparations for our departure." Naruto said, turning around swiftly as Obito watched him disappear down the maze like corridors of their underground hideout.

_'Hmmmm...he's developing well, it's a good thing Nagato has shied away from summoning the gedo mazo since that incident, otherwise, who knows what would have happened.' _thought Obito with a bit of relief, syncing a baby, Uzumaki or not had been one of the biggest gambles of his Obito's life, but not only did he do that, he also experimented on the kid by fusing Hashirama's living clone into the kid, yes, definitely a huge gamble, one he would do all over again if he was given the chance to.

_'Itachi would have made an incredible ally, it's a pity that he has chosen the path of a traitor, still, not all has been lost. In Naruto, I have something even better, and it won't be too long before Sasuke joins our cause...that is, if he can overcome Orochimaru's cursed seal. Hmmm...hehe, that should make for an interesting test of the extent of his talent.' _Obito thought with a sinister glint in his eyes, or was it just amusement, or maybe even both, only he knew.

**30 minutes later: Amegakure no Sato...**

"You're awfully quiet today Pein, what seems to be troubling you? Tell me..." said Konan, a rather tall, slender, and angelically beautiful woman with blue hair and a paper flower composing part of her hairstyle, amber eyes, ultramarine eye shadow, and a labret piercing, wearing black, tight fitting pants, black feminine boots, and a long, high collared cloak with red clouds on it.

"Zetsu was here yesterday while you were out on Ame patrol, he said Madara would be visiting today, and..." Pein, or rather, Deva trailed off. He is a tall handsome man with orange spiky hair, purple-grey eyes with concentric rings around the pupils, and a multitude of piercings all over his face, namely, a few metallic bars and studs piercing across his nose, through his ears, and on his chin. He is wearing the standard Akatsuki outfit that consists of blue shinobi pants, white leg warmers, and dark blue ninja sandals with a black cloak with red clouds on it.

The two of them were standing on the highest tower in Amegakure at the edge of what seemed to be a giant toungue of the three face designed tower, simply allowing the endless Amegakure rain to wash over their bodies as they looked out over their beloved home like the devine guardians that they were for and to the people of Ame.

"Pein...?" Konan said with an apathetic tone, at least, it would seem apathetic to someone who didn't know her quite as well as her long time friend, but in all honestly, she was worried for him, she was almost always worried about anything that threatened him or their home.

"He seems to have recruited another member for the organization. But isn't that a bit strange? Zetsu said that they would be arriving together, that Madara wants to personally introduce our newest comrade."

"The only other person he has done that with was Zetsu, his closest friend and confidant. You're right, it is indeed strange, not even Itachi and Kisame had that kind of special treatment." said Konan with a concerned expression.

"That's exactly what I was thinking, whoever this person is...he or she must be someone very important to him, or someone very powerful." Pein responded.

"What time will they arrive?" asked Konan.

"Anytime now..."

The trademark space time vortex appeared a few metres behind the duo almost as soon as the words registered in Konan's mind, expelling two Akatsuki cloaked male figures before closing up and disappearing completely. Deva's eyes widened considerably as soon as a single rain drop hit the shorter of the two figures. Konan immediately noticed this, but chose to say nothing, at least, not until she had him all to herself, than the gloves would have to come off, she would have to confront him about whatever had him so freaked out. But for now, they had to keep face and act completely unaffected, Madara was someone who she never wanted to have any more of an upperhand on them than he already did, every little battle was important, whether physical or psychological.

_'N-no way! This chakra...he has more chakra than Kisame...and he has a stronger life-force than even I do! What's going on here?' _thought Pein frantically.

"Pein, Konan, it's been a long time hasn't it?" Obito greeted with an unrivalled flambuoyance.

"It has been a long time since you came before us like this, If one didn't know better, one would think that you abandoned the organisation." Konan replied, taking her time to turn around and face the duo. Had she not so much experience in emotion concealing tactics, she would have surely screamed, squeled, cried, or even attacked the shorter of the two figures. That latter because of his resemblance to the Yondaime Hokage, and the former because of his resemblance to her late friend and lover, Yahiko. Maybe she still would have exhibited one of the reactions if the three whisker lines on each of his cheeks were not such a dead give away.

_'Pein, he is not who you will think he is when your turn around to face him, be careful not to show any reaction.' _said Konan, speaking to her friend through the communication link she had with him through her labret piercing that was made from one of the rinnegan's metalic rods.

_'Duelly noted, thank you, Konan.' _Pein replied, also turning around to face the two Senju dna receivers, or rather, Hashirama dna receivers.

"I would like for the two of you to meet my third protege, Uzumaki Naruto! He has retrieved Orochimaru's ring and will now become an active and official Akatsuki member. He knows everything that I know about the organisation, and he is in complete support of our plans and methods. You can trust him." Obito explained.

"I have never heard of an Uzumaki with blonde hair." Pein stated simply, successfully suppressing his emotions, just as expected of the god of peace.

"I guess you could call me a mixed breed, my mother is an Uzumaki and my father a Senju. By the way, I am honoured to finally meet the God and Angel of Ame, I look forward to working with you, Leader-sama, Konan-sama!" said Naruto, bowing his head in respect to the two Akatsuki higher ups.

"I don't like him, he hasn't even known us for more than two minutes and he is already sucking up to his superiors, that's a character trait of a greedy and over ambitious person, namely, an untrustworthy person." Konan said simply, watching the boy intently to gauge his reaction and to watch his every movement just in case.

"Don't be so quick to make judgements, Konan. Naruto is a very humble and loyal comrade, and most defintitely not what you think of him. Power and wisdom are character traits that he respects the most, if he is showing respect to you, it is because of all your achievements that I have told him about, it is because he looks up to you, not because he wants to suck up to you." Obito explained.

"Why doesn't he answer for himself, do you still fight his battles for him even though..."

"That's enough Konan!"

"P-pein..."

"We should show a little more faith and respect for our new comrade, after all, he is only our sibling apprentice's son." Pein replied, causing Naruto, Konan, and even Obito's eyes to widen in surprise.

"Heh, how did you know?" Obito asked casually.

"He gave himself away when he mentioned that one of his parents was an Uzumaki and the other a Senju. Also, he looks like a younger version of the Yellow Fash, really, it was quite a dead give away." Pein replied monotously.

_'Damn you Nagato, you're too smart for your own good!' _thought Obito.

"You live up to your reputation, Leader-sama." Naruto said evenly.

"Were you hoping to keep it a secret?" asked Pein with a quirked eyebrow.

"No, not really. If no one found out, good, if they find out, oh well. The truth is bound to come out eventually, I can't hide forever you know." Naruto said.

"I see..." was Pein's only response.

"In any case, I want Naruto to be partnered with Itachi..." Obito ordered.

"What about Kisame?" asked Konan with a raised eyebrow.

"Zetsu is the only official member without a partner, Kisame will be his partner until further notice." The masked man once again ordered.

_'A Senju and an Uchiha working together? I know that they are sibling apprentices, but still...why would he go so far just to pair them together, in fact, why has he always insisted on selecting Itachi's partners? Itachi is his protege, but still, I can't help but feel like there's something more to this than meets the eye.' _Konan pondered.

"Hmmm...this decision might upset Kisame, but than again, knowing you, I'm sure you have valid reasons for doing something like this, and so it shall done. Naruto's inauguration will take place tommorrow at the scheduled Akatsuki meeting." Pein said.

"That's what I wanted to hear, Naruto, you take good care of yourself now, I'll check on you from time to time, but we won't see each other anywhere near as often as we used to." said the Masked figure almost affectionately.

"It is alright Madara-sensei, you've taught me well, nothing will happen." Naruto said evenly.

"Good, we'll meet again." Obito said as he disappeared into his space-time vortex from his right eye.

_'Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on Itachi for you, nothing will be overlooked!' _thought the blonde Uzumaki.

"Uzumaki Naruto huh? Konan will show you to your sleeping quarters for the night, meet me back here when you are done with your tour, I have something that I wish to speak to you about." Pein ordered authoratively.

"Will do, Leader-sama." Naruto replied emotionlessly.

"Follow me..." was all Konan said as she turned around and swiftly walked back into the building, the blonde Uzumaki following behind her with a thoughtful silence.

**Akatsuki in the east of Ame...**

Gathered near the entrance of a cave were nine cloaked figures, all standing in line next to each other with the leader, Pein, and his partner, Konan standing at the middle slightly ahead of the other members. On his far right hand side stood Kakuzu, a tall man wearing a mask that covers both his head and lower face, revealing only his sinister green eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness of the cave, the man is wearing the full Akastsuki uniform carried no distinctive weapons with him.

Next to Kakuzu is Hidan, also a rather tall man with long and slick grey-white hair and purple eyes, wearing the standard Akatsuki uniform without a shirt underneath his cloak, a cloak that is only bottoned up to his chest, revealing a necklace with a strange religious shape and symbol. The man carries with him a huge scythe with a black cable attached to it.

Next to Hidan is Uchiha Itachi, a young man of age seventeen with black hair held in a short ponytail that was hidden by the high collar of his cloak and red pupils with three black tamoe circiling each pupil. As expect, he too is wearing the complete Akatsuki uniform but carries no visible or distinctive weapon.

Standing on Pein's left hand side, slightly behind Konan is Kisame, a tall and well built blue skin coloured male with a dark blue fin shaped hairstyle, white fishlike eyes and razor sharp, shark-like teeth, also wearing the standard Akatsuki outfit with a giant sword on his back wrapped up with a white cloth.

Next to him stood Deidara, a 15 year old young man with long blonde hair styled in a pony relatively long pony tail with one bang hanging over his left eye. The man also has dark eyes and is wearing the standard Akatsuki uniform. The most distinctive features on his body would undoubtedly have to be the mouths on each of his palms.

Next to Deidara is Sasori, a short hunchbacked figure with three braided hairs and a desert scarf covering the lower half of his face. He is also wearing the standard Akatsuki cloak with a metalic tail protruding from below the cloak on his backside.

And last but not least, with half of his body potruding from the roof of the cave, is Zetsu. Also a tall man with green hair and one side of his body plain white, and the other plain black. The man seems to have a venus fly trap covering his body and also wears the standard Akatsuki outfit. The strangest feature about him would undoubtedly have to be the fact that his black and white half seem to have too seperate personalities and even voices, as if, or rather, because he is two people in one.

"Our newest member has arrived, let us welcome him!" Pein ordered, instantly catching the attention of each and every single one of his subordinates, all wondering who and what to expect from their new comrade, except for Zetsu and Konan of course, both having already met and conversated with him already.

_'So Itachi's new partner has finally arrived huh? Hehe, this should be interesting! _thought Sasori with anticipation.

_'Samehada is bristling with excitement! This fellow must have an abnormal amount of chakra, I' don't think Samehada has ever reacted so strongly before!' _Kisame thought curiously.

_'I hope this guy appreciates the glory and wonder of art, unlike that dickhead Itachi!' _

_'Tche! Probably just another one of Leader's heathen recruits!' _

_'Why can't leader get me a new partner instead, preferably someone under the influence of money. That would suit me much better than this religious imbecile that I have to put up with!'_

"Everyone, meet Uzumaki Naruto! As you've already been made aware, he will be Itachi's new partner for the forseable future." Pein anounced with authority, the blonde Uzumaki reaching the top of the stairs immediately after the god of Ame's anouncement, wearing the standard Akatsuki uniform with a battle fan on his back, a battle fan that had Itachi's eyes wide in surprise and a little trepidition, the genius of the Uchiha clan displaying emotion for the first time since he joined Akatsuki all those years ago.

_'Impossible! That's...Madara's gunbai! And this is...Uzumaki Naruto?' _a perplexed Itachi thought disbelievingly.

"Good afternoon brothers and sister of the Akatsuki. I am Uzumaki Naruto, I'm good at earth release and especially water style ninjutsu, and I'm also skilled with seals and barriers. I can fight close range and i can fight medium and even long range too, and I'm also talented in the art of espionage. Itachi-senpei, I've already been informed that you and I will be partners, I look forward to working with you. I'll do my best not to slow you down." said Naruto as politely as possible, bowing slightly with respect to his new comrades.

_**'He purposefully avoided talking about the wood release! **__Does that mean that he didn't inform Leader and Konan too or did he just ask them not to say anything about it?' _Zetsu pondered, making a mental note to ask the blonde enigma for answers as soon as possible.

"Ooooi Leader! What is the fucking meaning of this you dickhead! Really, I thought this was supposed to be a criminal organisation, not a fucking orphanage!" shouted Hidan angrily, pointing his giant scythe

"Itachi was only one year older than Naruto when he joined us, and Deidara was exactly the same age as Naruto is now. Don't underestimate him, I wouldn't vouch for him if I didn't think he was worthy, just look how good Itachi and Deidara turned out to be for the organisation." Pein said evenly.

"Tche! Whatever, you better know what the fuck you're doing! If he screws up, I'll sacrifice you to Jashin-sama!" Hidan said with a threatening undertone.

"He won't screw up, I have faith in him, and so should you." Pein replied emotionlessly, completely ignoring Hidan's efforts at antagonising him.

"Tche...Jashin-sama is the only one worthy of my faith!"

"Nevertheless, Naruto is now an official member of our organisation and will immediately depart with his partner to fullfill his first mission, or rather, their first mission together."

_'A mission already huh? I wonder what it could be?' _Naruto thought.

"What kind of mission is it, Leader-sama?" Itachi asked with his usual stoicness.

"As you know, the Kyubi must only be sealed last in order to maintain balance within the Gedo Mazo. Also, the Kyubi Jinchuuriki is Uzumaki Kushina, the Fourth Hokage's wife. Capturing her at the moment is close to impossible, even if it could be achieved, it would come with a heavy price. Therefore, in the meantime, your job will be to systematically obliterate all obstacles in our way of capturing the Kyubi, so that when the time comes that the Kyubi has to be sealed, we won't have too much trouble completing our goals. Also, I want the two of you to go to Konoha immediately, enter Konoha and look for the Kyubi jinchuuriki. You may attempt to capture her, but we will use 'that' technique to do it. I don't expect you to succeed in capturing her, but I do expect you to gain and deliver information about Konoha's defensive strategies for protecting the Kyubi." Pein ordered authoratively.

"I'm sorry, but what is 'that' technique?" Naruto asked curiously.

"It is Leader's shape shifting technique, it allows us to possess someone elses body and use it as if it is our own. The body shifts and takes on our own physical features, voice, and even has our own unique jutsus while we control it from a distance." Itachi explained.

"I see, that's a very useful technique, but surely there must be a downside to it?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"You can only operate at a maximum of fifty percent of your true strength while using the technique, that's the only weakness." Itachi replied.

"That seems fair enough. Anyway, Leader-sama, you said that we had to sytematical remove the obstacles in our way of capturing the Kyubi, what are these obstacles exactly? I mean, obviously, these obstacles are Konoha shinobi that pose a threat to our mission, but an actual list and maybe even an order of execution would make things a lot easier for us?" asked the blonde Uzumaki.

"Indeed there are people that you will undoubtedly have to eliminate. Kill them in this order, Jiraiya of the Sannin, Senju Tsunade, and Shimura Danzo. Do not aproach the Yellow Flash yet, I will deal with him personally when the time comes. Oh, and get rid of Hatake Kakashi too if you encounter him."

"Hai, consider it done, Leader-sama!"The blonde Uzumaki saluted.

"..." Itachi said nothing at all, choosing rather to curb his temper lest he do something foolish against his own will, okay, maybe not so much against his will, but against his better judgement.

_'Itachi doesn't seem too pleased, understandably so I guess, after all, Obito nii-sama did agree not harm Konoha as long as Itachi served the Akatsuki and helped to complete our objectives. Still, this order couldn't possibly have come from Obito nii-sama, obviously, this order is coming directly from Pein. In any case, this will push Itachi over the edge, I should approach this mission as if Itachi is also an enemy, knowing him, he is bound to betray me at some point. If only we could tell Pein everything about Itachi, but he is too ruthless, he would just have him eliminated without hesitation. We can't allow that either though, Sasuke's recruitment also hindges on Itachi dying by Sasuke's hands. _Naruto thought.

_**'This is bad! We will have to split up, I'll go and watch Naruto's back, you must go and inform Tobi about everything! **__Good idea, I'll go as soon as the meeting ends, and I'll take Kisame with me, it's time he found out about the real Leader of Akastuki. __**Do what you have to do, and I will do what I must.' **_Zetsu thought to himself.

**End of Chapter!**

**Next chapter will be Longer, this was just the intro!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any other series that I might use for inspiration.

_**Reunion**_

"Naruto..." Itachi called out with his usual soft and emotionless voice, so soft that Naruto, for a split second, thought that maybe he might have imagined the mysterious Uchiha calling out his name. The rogue Uchiha had not spoken a single word since they left the hideout, just as well for Naruto, he didn't like participating in any pointless conversations either, small talk was just not his kind of thing.

In any case, the blonde knew that he didn't imagine Itachi's voice, because, he would never allow his mind to wonder off in the presence of anyone, more so in the presence of this particular man. His guard was up and all his senses were on full alert since they left the Akatsuki base in the east of Ame up until now.

Itachi carried himself too with the same principle, he was more than weary of the threat that the blonde could pose to him. He didn't think that he would lose to the young Uzumaki in a battle, but he wasn't underestimating him either. Itachi was a very intelligent individual, and was, by character trait and by virtue of his bloodline limit, a very observant person. Therefore, he was unabe to miss the fact that the blonde, since they met back at the Ame base, had not even once made direct eye contact with his sharingan.

Itachi also took note of the fact that the blonde chose to walk slightly behind him on his right hand side. This wasn't neccesarily a bad thing and didn't even neccessarily warrant suspision. From what he'd observed about the blonde in their initial interactions, he would say that the blonde was a very polite, humble, and respectful individual. Three reasons that should render it normal that the blonde would take such a position, it could easily be passed off as a sign that the blonde considered Itachi as his senior and leader in their two man team and was willing to follow him whatever direction he chose for them to go before, during, and after a mission.

But something told Itachi that it wasn't the case at all. Maybe that something was the fact that the boy was weary enough of him not to look at his eyes despite the fact that they were partners, Kisame never took such a precaution after all. Or, it could be the battle arrangement fan that the kid was carrying on his back. Any self-respecting Uchiha would know with a single glance what that thing was and to whom it belonged. Itachi knew as soon as he saw it and also was able to decipher exactly what it meant, Uzumaki Naruto was Uchiha Madara's protege and was somehow able to earn said legend's complete trust and faith in his abilities, despite him not even being an Uchiha, and infact being from a clan that said legend hated the could only mean one thing, there was something special about Uzumaki Naruto, and Itachi intended to find out exactly what that was.

"Is something the matter, Itachi-senpei?" Naruto asked robotically.

"This mission that Leader ordered us to complete, do you not think there is something off about it?" Itachi asked, gauging the blonde's reaction from the corner of his right eye.

"I'm sorry, but, you're going to have to elaborate." Naruto said simply.

"I mean, right now, Akatsuki is a relatively unknown entity, and the few who know about us do not know all the members of our organisation and certainly do not know about our true purpose. One would think leader would want to keep it this way for as long as possible, it would certainly render the capture of the bijuu a much simpler task than if everyone knew about us or our true purpose. Why would leader risk exposing us prematurely when it would only create an awareness about us in the ninja world, couldn't this mission have been assigned at a later stage when we have collected most of the bijuu?" Itachi asked.

"Hmmm...I can see where your concerns are coming from, but I think they might be misplaced. Sure, this mission will expose our existence to Konoha, but how would Konoha know that we're after their jinchuuriki. Our mission was simply to gather intel on Konoha's defense systems and kill a few of their elite shinobi. If anything, this mission should serve as a type of counter recon mission, you could say that we are here to plant false information about ourselves. Remember, we were ordered to deliver the corpses of our targets to Kakuzu so that he can collect the bounties on their heads, if anything, the world will have the impression that we are a mercenary organisation trying to get themselves filthy rich. Besides that, Konoha is bound to find out about us long before we capture the Kyubi regardless of the existence of this mission or not, you can't expect people not to notice that jinchuuriki are disappearing all over the elemental nations." Naruto explained.

_'He figured all of that all by himself, he's no ordinary kid, actually, he's miles ahead of his years. I'll have to excercise a little more caution than I initially thought I would need.' _Itachi thought.

"You say that people would notice when jinchuuriki all over the elemental nations start disappearing, I'm not so sure I agree with that anology." Itachi replied.

"Is that so?" Naruto asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Yes, think about it, if you were a village leader and your jinchuuriki all of a sudden went missing, wouldn't you do your utmost best to conceal that kind of information from your enemies? The jinchuuriki are considered to be the balance of power between the elemental nations, if one of the five great nations lost a jinchuuriki..." Itachi trailled off.

"They would be at risk of an invasion from an enemy village right, but, like I said before, I get why you may be concerned, but once again, the situation you describe is only the ideal situation, very much far from the real situation. We, the Akatsuki are fully aware of our targets' resources and their home villages'. Leader has chosen that target list for a good reason, for one, Danzo and his R.O.O.T forces, and Jiraiya of the Sannin run two of the largest and most advanced spy networks in the elemental nations. Say for example, we don't kill them as leader instructed, do you really believe that any village would be able to hide the loss of their jinchuuriki from both of them? That is impossible, and even if it were possible, there is still also Tsunade of the Sannin, who has been travelling all over the elemental nations for years now, she is bound to hear something one way or another. And I sure as hell don't buy the information Konoha released that Tsunade has severed her ties to her old home, if that were the case, she would be in the bingo books just as you and Orochimaru are. Basically, the result of this mission will be the opposite of what you think it will be, by killing Danzo, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, we will almost completely destroy Konoha's ability to gather information about us and our future business." the blonde Uzumaki replied.

_'So that's how it is...that's their plan? Damn you Madara, you'll pay for this betrayal!' _The Uchiha genius thought maliciously.

"I sense a lot of killing intent coming from you, is everything okay, Itachi-senpei?" the blonde Uzumaki asked.

"Everything is fine Naruto-kun, I'm just a little over excited about the battles ahead of us, it's been a long time since I fought anyone of that calibre."

_'Liar, you're angry that we're planning to destroy everything that you made so many sacrifices for. Damn Pein has created an awkward situation for us, I can't kill Itachi even if he betrays the organisation, Sasuke has to be the one to kill him so that we can recruite him. Man this is crazy.' _the blonde Uzumaki thought with a little exasperation.

"I see, I must admit, I'm also quite excited actually, it should be interesting to exchange blows against some of the so called strongest ninja village's best shinobi." the blonde said with a sadistic smile, displaying outward emotion for the first time since the two met.

"Have you ever fought shinobi of that calibra before?" Itachi asked curiously.

"I guess in a way you could say I have, but that doesn't make this any less exciting than it is." the blonde replied.

"I see, in any case, we've reached our destination, we'll be encountering the gate guard in the next two minutes, prepare yourself." Itachi ordered.

"Of course, but, are we going to simply waltz in through the front door?" a slightly confused Naruto asked.

"That is the plan, I'm going to use my genjutsu on the gate guard so that he can grant us entrance." Itachi said as he adjusted his straw hat to cover the upper portion of his face and in order to hide his eyes, the blonde Uzumaki doing the same as the two got closer and closer to the core of enemy territory.

_'It's only half past four in the morning, also, the mist seems to be especially thick today. This is a good time to infiltrate the village I have to admit.' _Naruto thought.

**Grass Country: Underground Akatsuki Base...**

"This is the place you wanted to show me? What is this place anyway?" Kisame asked curiously.

"I suppose you could say this is our organization's headquarters, the main Akatsuki base." Shirozetsu replied as the two went deeper and deeper into the maze-like underground lair.

"The main base? I thought that was supposed to be in Amegakure no Sato? What's going on here?" asked Kisame with eyes narrowed in suspision, stopping dead on his tracks while placing his right hand on Samehada's handle as he adopted a battle stance. Shirozetsu, sensing the animosity coming from his newest partner, stopped just a few metres from the gigantic swordsman and spoke without actually turning around to face his suspicious partner despite the potential danger that the sharkman seemed to pose to his wellbeing.

"Let me be frank with you, Kisame-san. Pein is only the figurehead of the organisation, the real leader resides, for the most part, in this particular base. Therefore, the base in Amegakure is only the administrative building, and this is the actual headquarters. We have come here so that you can be aquinted with the real leader." the white half of Zetsu explained patiently, shocking the blue sharkman considerably, so much so that his eyes almost looked twice their ordinary size.

"P-Pein is just a figurehead? You mean to tell me that there is a fish bigger than even him inside the pond?" Kisame asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, that is how it is. Now, before we proceed, are there any more questions?" Shirozetsu asked.

_'This world really is full of lies after all, is there even anything real at all, will I meet the real leader or is he just another figurehead? For all I know, this could just be another lie!' _thought a frustrated Kisame.

"Why am I only finding out about this now? Do the other members know about this place? Do they know that Pein is just a figurehead?" Kisame demanded.

"The only other people who know about this place are Pein and Naruto. Itachi and Konan, while they do not know about this place, are aware of Pein's true position in the Akatsuki, they also have been aquinted with the real leader of the organisation." Zetsu explained.

"I-Itachi knows? I understand why Konan would know about that, she is Lead...Pein's partner after all, but Itachi?" Kisame asked curiously, causing Zetsu to smirk maliciously.

"Itachi, much like Naruto, is our leader's protege." Zetsu replied simply, as if that simple sentence alone was enough to explain everything. Kisame surprisingly didn't show any outward reaction to that statement.

"I see...let me ask you one more question than, if Itachi was our leader's protege, why doesn't he know about this place? In other words, why hasn't he been extended the same curtousy as his sibling apprentice, Naruto?" Kisame demanded.

"I didn't expect you to ask that, at least not so soon, are you that much attached to Itachi, Kisame?"

"Just answer the question." Kisame demanded impatiently.

"Alright, I'll tell you. Many people do not know this, but Itachi did not massacre the whole Uchiha clan, he left a survivor, his brother, Uchiha Sasuke. More importantly, Itachi didn't massacre his clan merely to measure his vessel, or out of some cruelty or nasty sadism, Itachi massacred the Uchiha clan to protect Konoha." Zetsu explained, once again, very much to the surpise of the blue swordsman.

"You can't be serious, someone as cold as Itachi...!" Kisame exclaimed in disbelief.

"Cold? Yes, cold indeed, anyone who can kill his whole family, mother and father included and than go on to torture his eight year old little brother with repeated images of their deaths in a powerful genjutsu can be nothing but cold. But than again, Itachi never liked the people of his clan from the beginning, the only person he really loved in the clan was his brother, he always loved Konoha as a whole more than his own family." Zetsu said, pausing for a short period to give the sharkman a chance to digest the information.

"The Uchiha Massacre was Itachi's mission from the Konoha higher-ups, the Uchiha clan were planning a coupe, they felt that, as co-founders of the village, that they were being treated unfairly. Konoha did it's best to keep them out of the higher positions in the village and used the military police system to keep them busy and away from the village politics. They also moved them to the outskirts of the village after the Kyubi attack twelve years ago and made them live in isolation so that they can keep an eye on the Uchiha clan with their A.N.B.U operatives. you might have noticed that all the Hokages have been either Senju or have had very strong connection to the Senju clan, this only cemented the Uchiha clan's belief that the Senju were opressing them just as Madara long ago predicted." Zetsu explained, once again stopping for a moment to give Kisame a chance to take in the information.

"Itachi was a triple agent, he worked for Konaha's A.N.B.U, he worked for Danzo's R.O.O.T operation, and he worked for the Uchiha clan. He was collecting and exchanging information for all three divisions, but all in all, his true loyaties lied with Konoha. Itachi warned the higher-ups about the Uchiha's plans, the Uchiha clan on the other hand expected Itachi to spy on the village and be their ace in the hole, but Itachi betrayed them. Itachi's last mission for Konoha was to annihilate the Uchiha clan and to join a shady organisation of S-rank criminals as a spy for Konoha. Itachi is unaware that we know about his true intentions, but in any case, that is also why we have kept this place a secret from him, we don't trust him of course. Now, are there anymore questions?" Zetsu asked.

"As a matter of fact I have a few more, firstly, if what you said about Itachi is true, why let him live, why not just kill him?"

"It's not that simple, an Uchiha with that kind of power in his eyes is hard to find nowadays. We believe that Sasuke's eyes can become even more powerful than Itachi's, that is why we want to recruit him. But right now, Sasuke lives only for one purpose, to avenge his family by killing the one responsible for their demise, it is his dream and it is what keeps him going day by day. If we kill Itachi, we will in effect have taken away Sasuke's reason for living, he would than turn his eyes on us and we would become his enemy. We would end up having to kill him, which is not part of the plan. We have to allow him to kill Itachi himself, at which point we would than direct his hatred towards Konoha by revealing the true story behind the massacre, effectively turning him into an ally of ours." Zetsu explained patiently.

"You guys have really given this a lot of thought haven't you?"

"Great things can only be achieved by great minds." Zetsu said simply, finally turning around to face Kisame, who was no longer posing any sort of threat to his new teammate, having heard the white guy's side of the story.

"By the way, where did Kurozetsu go?" Kisame asked curiously, slightly unnerved by the site of a man missing one half of his body.

"He's watching over Naruto and Itachi, just in case something happens."

"You mean in case Itachi attacks Naruto, given the nature of their mission that is?" Kisame asked shrudely.

"Yes, but in any case, Naruto is very strong and even smarter than he is strong, I don't believe my help will be needed." Zetsu replied.

"Strong enough to handle Itachi on his own?" Kisame asked, eyes widening in surprise. He knew better than most just how powerful Itachi was, after all, they'd been partners for years up until recently. To think that a little brat like Naruto could stand up to him sounded a little ridiculous to him.

"Strong enough to handle anyone on his own. Of course, victory is never guaranteed for either person when people of such a high calibre clash, but I've seen what Naruto can do, he should be fine." Zetsu replied.

"I suppose I have no choice but to take your word for it, but, tell me, out of every other member of the organisation, why me? What makes me so special that I should be granted an audience with the real leader?" Kisame asked skeptically.

"Hehehe! You know, out of all the questions that you have have asked me, that is by far the easiest to answer, in all honesty, with all this talk about Itachi, Sasuke, and the Uchiha clan, I would have thought you would have figured it out by now, Kisame." Zetsu said with a sinister smirk, causing Kisame to release an audible gasp in surprise.

"U-Uchiha Madara? The leader of the organisation is him isn't it?" Kisame stuttered out.

"Hehehehe! So you finally figured it out, I guess I don't have to explain the reason for your presence here now do I? You are after all, the man that he trusts the most, after Naruto and I of course..."

**Konohagakure no Sato...**

_'Kuso! This kid has some really bad timing, although, I'm quite certain that he would argue against that fact if he got a sniff of what's actually going on, or rather, who is on that other side of the curtain.' _thought one Sarutobi Asuma with trepidition. He is a rather tall, well built man with brown eyes, spiky black hair, and a black beard to go with it, wearing the standard jonin uniform with a 12 ninja guardian sash sticking out from the left side of his waist and black shinobi gloves.

"Maa maa Sasuke, I can't train you right now, I have a meeting with the Hokage in a few minutes and given the importance of the topic of discussion, it might take the whole day away from me. How about tommorrow, huh?" lied Hatake Kakashi, also a rather tall man with silver grey gravity defying hair and a forehead protector going across his head and covering his left eye. He is wearing the standard konoha jonin outfit with a brown weapons pouch on his right leg.

"You're lying, I don't even need my sharingan to know that much! Tche, whatever, just as I thought, I'm the only person that I can count on around here." said Sasuke irritably, turning around abruptly and going back towards the direction that he came from.

_'What a dark child, that incident really messed him up didn't it, from what I hear, he was supposed to have been a really sweet child before the massacre.' _thought Kurenai, a beautiful voluptous woman with raven hair and rosy red eyes with an extra ring in them, wearing a revealing outfit which appears to consist of mostly white bandages and a Konoha forehead protector around her forehead.

"Kakashi, those two are gone, they escaped while you were distracted with your student. There was nothing we could have done to stop them without alerting Sasuke." Asuma explained.

"Also, this is a civilian populated area, many lives would have been at risk if we had clashed with them in a place like this." Kurenai added.

"That's alright, the two of you made the right call. I managed to catch their scent with my noise, we should be able to track them down." Kakashi assured, going through a few hand seals before biting his thumb and slamming his right hand on the ground.

**"Summoning Technique: Pakun!" **whispered Kakashi, causing a small puff of smoke to appear where his hand slammed into ground, the cloud disappearing soon to reveal a small, brown dog.

"Pakun, there is no time for pleasantries right now, so listen up! Go straight to the Hokage's office and tell him that Kurenai, Asuma, and I are tracking down two shinobi wearing black cloaks with red clouds, and tell him that one of them we believe to be Uchiha Itachi." Kakashi explained.

"Roger! Consider it done!" Pakun saluted as he prepared for his mad dash.

"Oh and Pakun, if you happen to run across Gai on your way, tell him that we need his help asap!" Kakashi ordered.

"Roger!" Pakun exclaimed before running away at full speed, leaving a dust trail behind him in the process.

"Alright, Kurenai, Asuma, follow me!" Kakashi ordered before disappearing from his position, using the standard leaf shunshin technique to increase his travel speed exponentially, Kurenai and Asuma following behind him in kind as all three shinobi prepared their minds and body for the potential battle to come.

**Konohagakure outskirts:**

"Itachi-senpei, why are we leaving so early?" Naruto asked curiously.

"We have been discovered, and besides that, from the information that we have gathered, the first member of our hit list, Jiraiya of the Sannin is not inside Konoha at the moment. He left a while back on a mission to retrieve Tsunade of the Sannin on the Fourth Hokage's orders. We have to intercept him before he reaches her, our mission will be much harder if we have to fight the two of them at the same time. They have more experience than us individually and as a team, we have only been teammates for a few days now." Itachi explained.

"I get that, and to a great extent, I agree with you. But remember, Hatake Kakashi is also on our hit list, all I'm saying, is that we shouldn't leave a target when the opportunity presents itself just because we want to follow an irrelevant target order." Naruto retorted.

"Well, if that's really how you feel, than prepare yourself for battle, they're already here." Itachi replied.

"I know, I've been prepared since Leader-sama passed down the mission order to us." Naruto responded. No sooner had his words registered did the trio of Konoha shinobi make their presense known, already aware that their presense had already been detected by the enemy.

"The two of you are trespassers, surrender yourselves now and your punishment will be made light, don't surrender...and face the consequences!" Kakashi ordered, simultaneously lifting up the headband covering his left eye, revealing a mature sharingan in his left eye hole.

"Hn, it's been a long time, Kakashi-san." Itachi replied, throwing his straw hat away as he turned around slowly to face his opponents, Naruto doing the same as he also faced their opponents.

"Uchiha Itachi, you have some nerve showing yourself here again after what you did. I'm going to capture you and make sure you get the full punishment for your sins." Asuma said with a determined expression.

"You seem to have earned yourself quite a substantial dose of popularity here, Itachi-senpei." Naruto said sarcastically, effectively drawing everyone's attention to him.

"So it seems Naruto-kun, so it seems." Itachi replied with narrowed eyes.

_'Did he just say...Naruto? No! That's impossible! B-but...the whisker lines on his cheek? Those are the same as the corpse of Minato-sensei's son had, and he has the same name!' _thought Kakashi with a horrified expression.

"Hehehe! This one's just a kid! Just what kind of demented freak are you Itachi, getting a little kid like this involved with your twisted plans and ideologies!" Asuma taunted with a cocky smirk.

"I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you Asuma-san, after all, I was only a year older than he is when I massacred my foolish kinsmen." Itachi warned with his usual stoic mannerisms.

_'Krrrr! Damn braggard!' _a pissed off Asuma thought.

"I think you're the one underestimating us, Uchiha Itachi." Kurenai said.

"Y-you! You with the blonde hair!" Kakashi called out.

"Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi-san, how may I help you?" Naruto asked with mock politeness.

"Who are you?" Kakashi demanded.

"I'm Itachi-senpei's partner in crime." Naruto replied with a sadistic smirk.

"That's not what I meant, I already know that! What is your name?" Kakashi asked almost hysterically.

"I suppose there's no harm in telling, you're all about to die anyway, so I'll tell you. My name is Uzumaki Naruto, of the great Uzumaki clan of course." the blonde Uzumaki answered with a hint of pride.

"D-did you just say Uzumaki?" Kurenai asked with wide eyes.

"Yes I did, remember the name well, it is the last name you will hear before you die." Naruto said with unwavering confidence.

"N-no way, y-you mean to tell me that you're related to the Hokage's wife? Impossible!" Asuma exclaimed in denial.

"Asuma, Kurenai, his not just related to her, if what I'm seeing and what he is saying is real, which, according my sharingan seems to be the case, than he isn't just related to her, actually, he's hers and Minato-sensei's son" Kakashi explained with the utmost seriousness.

_'Way to go Kakashi-san, now all you have to do is survive long enough to deliver this information to Hokage-sama. Our mission to assassinate Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Danzo will never succeed with Konoha focussing all it's resources on finding and capturing us, more specifically, Naruto-kun.' _Itachi thought happily.

_'He's quite smart to have figured it out, but than again, he was the Fourth Hokage's student, it should have been obvious to someone like him. I wouldn't be surprised if he was even priviledged enough to see the fake corpse that Zetsu and Obito nii-sama left behind.' _Naruto thought.

"Kushina-sama and Hokage-sama have a child together!" Kurenai exclaimed disbelievingly.

"More than that, they're actually married. It's actually quite remarkable that they have managed to keep it a secret for so long. I myself only know because of my father. But, I never expected something like this, but now that I think about it, he does more than resemble Hokage-sama, and he has Kushina-sama's facial features too. There's no doubt about it, what Kakashi speaks has to be the truth." Asuma explained to Kurenai.

"You have come to Konoha because you want the bijuu inside of Kushina-sama, the Kyubi. But if that is true Naruto, do you know what that means?" Kakashi asked with narrowed eyes.

"You know about our mission? I see, Jiraiya is quite a shrewd man, he must have found out about us through his spy network and shared that information with Hokage-sama, who in turn must have shared it with you and all of his closest friends." Itachi cut in quickly.

_'No, something's wrong here! No jinchuuriki have been captured yet, in fact, we haven't even begun hunting the bijuu yet. The only way Jiraiya, could get his hands on such information, spy network or not would be if a mainstream member of the organisation told him directly. Of course, Orochimaru could have released such information just to spite us, but Itachi could easily use Orochimaru as a scapegoat for his own misdeeds. After all, the natural assumption would be that Orochimaru was the one releasing the information. It could also explain why Orochimaru was able to escape Itachi that time, maybe he didn't escape at all, maybe Itachi allowed him to escape for this very purpose.' _Naruto thought wearily.

_'I can't prove anything now, the only way to prove it is to let Him take care of Kakashi while I handle the others. If Kakashi manages to survive, than I'll know that Itachi never intended to kill him in the first place, it will be a good test of his character I suppose.' _the blonde Uzumaki thought.

"Itachi-senpei, I'll handle Sarutobi Asuma and Yuhi Kurenai, you make sure you kill Hatake Kakashi." Naruto said almost authoratively.

"You sure you can handle the both of them?" Itachi asked.

"Don't worry about me, make sure you fulfill your side of the job, I'll handle my business. Oh, and if you can, salvage his eye for me, I want it." Naruto said with a no nonsense voice, shocking everyone within the vicinity, his partner included.

"Naruto, you don't have to do this! What about your mother and..."

"Silence! Your blabbering was amusing at first, but it's quickly becoming annoying. I have no attachment to the Kyubi or her husband. They mean nothing to me, I don't even know them." Naruto replied irritably.

_'I can't detect any deception, does that mean that he's not lying? He really doesn't care about them?' _Kakashi thought in disbelief.

_'No! It doesn't matter, he'll learn to love them if he gets a chance to know them, yes, that's right, Minato-sensei and Kushina-sama are wonderful and loving people, there's no way they wouldn't be able to reach his heart. Someone must be manipulating him right now.' _Kakashi thought.

"Fair enough, I'll take your word for it, at least for now. Asuma, Kurenai, don't underestimate him, he is Minato-sensei's son after all. Make sure you don't kill him though, our mission now is to capture him and return him to his rightful parents. leave Itachi to me, I'll hold him off so long!" Kakashi ordered.

"Capture me huh? Trying to capture someone is the same as fighting with a handicap, you have to hold back so that you don't actually kill them, while the other person doesn't feel obliged to hold back at all. You wouldn't be able to defeat me even if you were going for the kill, if you want to have even a small chance of capturing me, you're going to have to fight me with the intent to kill." Naruto said matter of factly.

**"Fire Release: Grand Fire Ball Technique!" **Itachi attacked unexpectedly, releasing what was the largest fire ball that Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai ever saw in their life without even molding any hand seals prior to the execution of the technique. The trio were so off guard, or rather, the technique was executed so fast that none of them got a chance to set up any form of defense or counter technique for fire technique, all they could do was to split up and dodge to the sides in order to avoid getting killed, Asuma and Kurenai going left whereas Kakashi went to the right.

_'Perfect execution of the gand fireball, he successfully managed to completely seperate them with that one technique. This is good, just how I wanted it to be!' _Naruto thought as he followed the duo of Kurenai and Asuma, Itachi going the opposite direction to confront his own advisary.

"Now I have you all to myself, let's see what you can do." the blonde Uzumaki taunted, having followed the two jonin to another clearing in the forest.

"Krrrr! This kid is so cocky it's actually starting to piss me off now!" Asuma said irritably.

"Settle down Asuma, that's exactly what he wants, don't fall for it." Kurenai said, lightly reprimanding the more experienced jonin of the two.

"I know, don't worry, I'm not that stupid." Asuma replied hotly, still pissed off at the blonde's taunting remarks.

_'She seems to be the more calm and composed of the two, that means that she is probably also the smarter of the two. Also, if I'm not mistaken, he's a ninjutsu type who prefers close combat, with wind and fire affinities, and she's a genjutsu specialist.' _the blonde thought, recalling the information he had read on his bingo books that his sensei had always insisted he stay updated with.

_'Now, how to proceed? Well, I guess I should fight them up close and personal, I can't afford to allow her to mold hand seals for her genjutsu, that will just be a pain in the rear end,' _the Uzumaki thought analytically, grabbing the hilt of his gunbai as he adopted a battle ready stance.

"Kurenai, we're going to go with that move. I'll cover you while you do your thing as usaul." Asuma whispered.

"Alright." Kurenai said as she started molding hand seals for her genjutsu.

_'Oh no you don't!" _Naruto thought as he, with incredible speed and reflexes, swung his fan violently, realeasing three large spheres of compressed air towards the two jonin at incredible speed.

_'Wind and water are my original nature affinities, with earth release only a result of my fusion with Hashirama's cells. It comes naturally to me and is even easier to use with a medium such as this gunbai here. Now, if I'm not mistaken, Asuma will try to stop my attack with his own assortment of wind jutsu in order to buy time for Kurenai to activate her jutsu. That will be his mistake, I'll simply attack her while he's distracted trying to stop my jutsu.' _the blonde Uzumaki thought confidently.

**"Wind Style: Air Bullet Technique!" **Asuma shouted, sucking in a substantial amount of air before hitting the palm of his hand against his stomach, forcing the chakra infused air out in the form of three fast moving air bullets. The two jutsu met in the middle of the battlefield and cancelled each other out, the three air bullets crashing against each other as a shockwave washed over the battleground, felling a few surround trees in the process. Asuma had to cover his face with his arm to protect himself from the dust and debris that was flying around the battlefield, such was the power behind the clash between the two respective jutsu. Luckily, Kurenai had to do no such thing as Asuma took the role of a shield to protect her, which gave her the chance to complete the hand seals for her jutsu.

"That's it, **Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death**...aaaaah!" a surprised Kurenai screamed as a hand shot out of the ground and grabbed onto her ankle.

**"Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!" **Naruto whispered from under the ground below Kurenai, pulling the genjutsu mistress underneath the earth before jumping out and onto the surface himself,the genjutsu mistress never getting the chance to complete her genjutsu, finding herself buried neck deep into the ground that she had only a second ago been standing on.

"Kuso! Kurenai!" a worried Asuma shouted, spinning around rapidly only to see his love interest getting dragged into the ground, almost like she sank into a super fast quick sand.

_'This guy...he used the shockwave from the collision of our jutsu as a distraction, and than used earth style to sneak up on Kurenai so that he can capture her, he wanted to stop her from executing her genjutsu at any cost. That means, he must have intel on us, did Itachi tell him?' _Asuma thought frantically.

_'Even if he has intel, this doesn't make any sense at all, I was watching him the whole time, when did he...' _Asuma trailed off, looking back only to see another Naruto standing in the same spot that he had been watching, waving at him with a playful smirk before crumbling into earth debris.

_'He switched himself with an earth clone, I see, not only is he gifted at nature manipulation, but he also has the mental aptitude to use it wisely without wasting a single movement. He's a very dangerous foe, I shouldn't have underestimated him!' _thought a frustrated Asuma.

"I've captured your comrade, but..." said Naruto, placing the oval edge of his gunbai on Kurenai's head threateningly, waiting for Asuma to face him again before carrying on from where he left off.

"But what?" Asuma asked impatiently, unable to mask the frustration and worry in his tone and expression.

"The bounty on your head is significantly higher than the bounty on this woman's head. Tell you what, if you agree to slit your own throat right now, I promise to let her go unharmed." Naruto offered with a poker face.

_'W-what! Is this guy for real?' _a perplexed Asuma thought frantically.

"No! Don't listen to him Asuma! I am a Konoha jonin, I knew a long time ago that I would one day be killed in battle, I'm prepared to die on duty. In any case, even if you were willing to die for me..."

"I am willing to die for you, if it means you get to live even a single extra day, I'd willingly give my life for you!" Asuma exclaimed with absolute convinction.

_'Asuma...y-you, you really..." _Kurenai trailed off, eyes wide in surprise and even a little happiness, a warm feeling inexplicably settling at the centre of her chest.

_'As I thought, he has strong feelings for this woman. This one is so easy to read and manipulate, his emotions are all over the place. He'll probably let his guard down very soon, I'll just have to wait a little longer to exploit that moment.' _Naruto thought, not really touched at all by the, in his own opinion, 'soap opera' like scene happining before his very own eyes.

"Baka! Don't you get it, he's just preying on our feelings for each other, he has no intention of letting me go! Face it, there's nothing you can do to save my life now, the only thing you can do for me is to send him to the afterlife so that I can get my rematch and revenge on him there!" Kurenai shouted angrily, or at least, with the imitation of anger.

"K-Kurenai...you can't be serious!" Asuma shouted in surprise and a little anger, absent mindedly deactivating the chakra coursing through his trench knives as he lowered his arms slightly.

_'There! There's the opening!' _Naruto thought with a burst of speed, sprinting at an incredible foot speed as he covered the distance between him and Asuma in the blink of an eye, simultaneously channeling wind chakra into his gunbai as he swung it violently in a horizontal arc, with the aim to dismember the third hokage's heir at the waist.

_'He's too fast! I won't be able to react in time, Kurenai...I'm sorry!' _Asuma thought, closing his eyes sorrowfully as he prepared himself to embrace his own death. Because Asuma's eyes were closed, he wasn't able to see Naruto's eyes widen slightly just before delivering the killing blow as he cancelled out his attack in an instant, swinging his fan in a vertical, anti clockwise direction before stopping the spin in a position slightly to his left hand side as if to block an incoming attack.

**"Dinamic Entry!" **even after anticipating and blocking the attack, the power behind the attack was so great that the blonde Akatsuki member was pushed almost twenty metres in a direction slightly to his left, his feet sliding across the surface before willing himself to an abrupt stop.

_'I didn't sense his presence until it was almost too late, I must be careful not to let my guard down like that again, it could get me killed.' _thought the young Akatsuki blonde.

"G-Gai! Great timing, thanks for the save, I owe you one." Asuma said with more than a little relief.

"Yosh! The youthful green beast of Konoha has arrived!" shouted Gai, a tall and muscular man with black hair styled in a bowl haircut, thick, bushy eyebrows and black eyes, wearing a green spandex outfit with orange leg warmers and blue ninja sandals. His forehead protector is also worn across his forehead.

_'Way to go and ruin the moment, Gai, hehehe, but I can't say I'm not glad to see you.' _Asuma thought.

_'If memory serves me right, this is Might Gai, a taijutsu expert who is a master of the konoha's eight gates technique. His main weakness is his lack of mental aptitude I believe.' _the blonde Uzumaki thought.

"Asuma, let me apologise for my tardiness, I ran into Pakun earlier and he told me what was happening. In any case, now that I'm here, the two of you should go and help Kakashi. If the two of you are here, than that means that he is fighting a man who is strong enough to take out a genius clan all on his own. He's going to need your help more than I do, I'll join you as soon as I am done with this one." Gai said.

_'As soon as you're done with me huh? He's severely underestimating me, but that's fine by me, it suits me just fine.' _Naruto thought.

"Good idea, I'll release Kurenai and we'll depart immediately, I'm also worried about Kakashi-san. But Gai..." Asuma trailled off with a serious tone.

"Yes, what is it my youthful friend?"

"Whatever you do, try not to kill him, his name is Uzumaki Naruto, and...he is Hokage-sama's son." Asuma explained much to the green beast's surprise.

"Nani!" Gai exclaimed with a stupified expression.

"This is no time to be surprised, Gai! This guy is a real shinobi at heart, he's manipulative, deceptive and incredibly smart. He doesn't waist any movements at all, an opportunist by nature. Also, he takes after his father in both speed and intellect, be careful, be very careful." Asuma warned with a grave undertone.

"I see, in that case, tell me all about his abilities." Gai ordered, also adopting a serious tone and expression.

_'His behaviour and overall demeanor has changed all of a sudden, I guess he won't be underestimating me any more. That will make things a little harder.' _Naruto thought.

"So far, he has shown an affinity for both wind and earth nature manipulation. Also, his speed and reflexes are off the charts. He also uses that gunbai as a primary weapon and even uses it to complement his wind style ninjutsu. That is all we have seen so far, but, I get the feeling that there's more to what he can do than what he has already shown." Asuma explained.

"I see. Thank you my youthful friend, I'll be sure not to underestimate this youth. I shall beat out the unyouthfulness that Itachi has bestowed upon Yondaime-sama's legacy!" Gai exclaimed.

"Okay, we're counting on you, Gai, goodluck." Asuma said, running towards Kurenai before releasing her from the blonde Akatsuki's **double suicide decapitating technique**, the blonde Uzumaki paying minimal attention to them as he focussed his attention on his newest rival.

_'This one must be very strong if they're willing to leave me to him after what I did to them.'_ Naruto thought.

"Lets go Kurenai-chan!" Asuma said.

"H-hai!" Kurenai agreed as the two ran into the surrounding forest in the direction that Itachi and Kakashi presumeably went to do battle.

_'That Naruto, there's definitely more to him than he has shown. He didn't even seem fazed by the fact that I was passing intel about him right in front of his eyes, nor did he try to intervene and stop me from passing it on. Gai, I hope you're really up for this, well, in any case you don't have a choice but to fight him alone, Kurenai and I would have just gotten in your way, you're the only one, apart from Hokage-sama, that can match up to his speed. I can only hope that you use the eight gates wisely.' _Asuma thought with concern as the two headed deeper and deeper into the forest.

"You're a master of taijutsu, correct?" Naruto asked, re-placing the gunbai on his back as he adopted a taijutsu stance.

"You know about the green beast of Konoha?" Gai asked with a stupid but prideful smile.

"Actually, I know quite a lot about you, I also know that you're quite fast, particularly when you use the eight gates technique. I'd like to test how your taijutsu matches up to mine, how about it? A taijutsu battle between the two of us?" Naruto challenged.

_'Of course, unlikely as it is, should his taijutsu prove superior to mine, I'll just kill him with a surprise ninjutsu or fuinjutsu technique.' _Naruto thought sadistically.

"Yosh! Kami-sama, let my taijutsu ignite this unyouthful child's flames of youth!" Gai exclaimed as he also took upon a taijutsu stance.

"Alright than, here I...come!" Naruto exclaimed as he appeared right in front of the green beast in the blink of an eye with foot speed alone, aiming a punch into the older shinobi's abdomen.

Gai was able to just barely block the punch thanks to his own speed and reflexes, but was unprepared for the power behind the attack as he was pushed off of his feet, landing hard on his back and skidding on the surface, his body digging a deep and long trench into the ground.

_'Kuso, I removed my weights before showing myself to him, but even than, his speed and power seems to be at a higher level than mine. He's so fast, he really is Yondaime-sama's son after all...' _Gai was cut off from his thoughts as the blonde Uzumaki came crashing down on his abdomen knee first. Gai was unable to move out of the way, but was able to cross his arms over his torso for protection. That was however not effective as the blonde's attack was able to completely dismantle his guard, his knee breaking through Gai's guard and crashing into his abdomen.

"Gwaaaaaaah!" Gai cried out in pain, eyes so wide that it looked as if they were about to pop out at any second with globs of blood flying out of his mouth. The impact of the attack was so great that the whole surface concaved on tself, sending fissures all throught the surface as a large crater formed underneath the two shinobi, a violent shockwave washing throughout the battle ground. The blonde Uzumaki jumped out of the crater a few seconds later and immediately started walking away from the battlefield.

_'He won't be getting up after that attack, he'll die in a few seconds. That was a lowsy battle, totally not worth my time...huh?' _Naruto broke off with eyes wide in surprise.

The blonde Uzumaki spun around instantly, eyes widening even further as a heavily damaged might guy jumped and landed outside of the gigantic crater, the upper portion, the one covering his torso and arms, of his green spandex torn to shreds with a dark blue bruise covering the centre of his torso. The noble green beast looked nothing close to being what one would consider healthy, at least, not enough to do battle against an S-rank criminal.

"Y-you unyouthful child! H-how dare you turn your back on an opponent...!" Gai exclaimed angrily, although the effect somewhat jaded by the ruggedness of his breathing and the blood leaking out of his mouth.

"That combination from earlier has killed many enemies, what an incredible durability feat it is that you are still alive. Demo, you're in no condition to fight right now, it would have been far better for you to play dead until I was gone, you just certified your death, Gai-san." Naruto replied casually.

"Certified my death huh? Your taijutsu is without a doubt outstanding, it only pains my heart that I wasn't the one to have developed Yondaime-sama's legacy to this extent. In any case, you still have a long way to go before you reach my level, let me show you what I mean..." Gai trailled off, crossing his arms in front of his face as he adopted a look of utter concentration.

**"The Sixth Gate, Keimon! Kai!" **Gai shouted as un enormous power suddenly became available to him, his eyes turning white, skin turning red, and even his blood vessels expanding to the point that they became visible through his skin. A massive shockwave washed over the battlefield, to the point that even a small crater formed underneath the spot that Gai was standing at.

_'So this is the eight gates technique, I've never seen it before, but what an incredible technique, his chakra activity just shot through the roof in an instant.' _Naruto thought in wonder and amazement.

"This is the next level, with this jutsu, I will penetrate your heart and instil Konoha's flames of youth in you. You have amazing talent and passion, talent and passion that has been corrupted by the Akatsuki, Maybe, just maybe one day, when you have embraced the will of fire, maybe...I might teach this technique to you. That is, if your father will grant me the honour." Gai said with a sombre expression.

"I see, finally, I understand your obsession with youth. When people are young, they dare to dream, and they dream very big and very easily. Probably, ninety percent of the children that enter a shinobi academy have grand dreams about becoming the strongest shinobi in the elemental nations, or at least, the strongest and most respected in their home village. But as the years grow by, friends die in the field of battle, they themselves are defeated countless times and constantly have to rely on their comrades for survival. Slowly but surely, they begin to realise just how farfetched or out of their reach their dream is, and the dream slowly begins to fade away and until it is eventually nothing but a long forgotten memory. It gets so bad, that at some point, they stop trying to get stronger altogether, they come face to face with their failures and limitations and eventually decide to accept their fate at the bottom of the hierarchial order." Naruto said, taking a small breathe before carrying on where he left off.

"But this technique of yours tells me something different about you, after all, this is a technique designed to break human limitations, the very same human limitations that have destroyed so many of the youth's grand and even some smaller dreams. This technique directly associates you to a dreaming youth, because, this technique technique enables you to carry on dreaming despite your limitations, it allows you to ignore science and logic and live, for a while at least, in a dreamful state much like the state a youth experiences only in his dreams. Gai-san, your are a man worthy of my respect, it is a pity that you have to die by my hand." Naruto said stoicly, once again adopting a battle ready stance.

"Naruto-san, you're so wise, I don't even need evidence anymore to confirm that you really are your father's son. Let me apologise in advance for the pain that I am about to cause you, but know that it is only because of my respect for your parents that I am doing this, this...this is a personal mission to reunite parents and child. Brace yourself Naruto-san, here I come!" Gai shouted, disappearing from his position in the blink of an eye and re-apearing in a crouched position right in front of the blonde Uzumaki, right foot in the air with the intention to kick the blonde on the chin.

_'He's faster, much faster! I can read his movements but my body doesn't seem to be able to keep up, this, this is impossible!' _thought a very concerned Naruto as he was kicked high into the air, the blonde however powering through the pain threshold as he quickly righted himself in mid air.

_'He broke my jaw, damn it! His power has also increased to a level beyond my own. Things can't go on like this, I'm going to have to...' _Naruto thoughts were broken in process as Gai suddenly appeared right in front of him.

**"Morning Peacock!" **Gai shouted, the intimidation factor behind his sudden attack intensified further by the red skin, white eyes, and expanded blood vessels, making even a slight frown in concentration look like that of a raging bull.

_'Kuso! I can't protect myself anymore!' _Naruto thought frantically.

"Haaaaah!" Gai screamed out a battle cry as layers of flames engulfed his large and strong fists, the green beast delivering blitzing combinations on the blonde Uzumaki's body at incomprehensible speeds and power.

"G-Gwaaaaah!" Naruto cried out, his body beaten upon like a ragged doll, Gai ending the combination with a round house kick to the top of the head that sent the blonde Uzumaki crashing into the ground, creating a large explosion of dust and debris that went flying all over the place.

**000000000000**

"He's lost consciousness, but he still has a heartbeat. As expected, he is an Uzumaki after all." Gai thought out loud, crouching down next to the blonde Uzumaki with his finger firmly placed on the blonde's carotid artery.

"I'll have to take him to A.N.B.U HQ for detainment and medical treatment...nani!"

**BOOOOM!**

Was the ear shattering sound as the blonde Uzumaki's body exploded, releasing a staggering amount of violent water tides, water that was so much that it turned the whole battleground into a pond, or mini river with four metre water levels. Gai, even with the sixth gate activated was unable to completely escape the jutsu, taking the brunt of the technique as he crashed through tree after tree after tree before eventually sinking into the water.

_'Asuma said that Naruto had used wind and earth style when he was fighting against he and Kurenai, but he just used water release ninjutsu right now, and to this large a scale without a water source. What's going on here.'_ Gai thought, trying to swim back to the surface of the water as fast as possible.

**"Water Release: Five Glutonous Sharks!" **Naruto whispered harshly, placing his hand on the surface of the water as chakra was released from each of his five fingers, the chakra growing and taking the form of five large and ferocious sharks.

The sharks, not needing any verbal instructions knew exactly what they had to do, swimming at impressive speeds aroundtheir target before attacking at speeds that exceeded any humans human's swimming capabilties by a more than fare margin. Luckily for Gai, his feet were already close to the surface by the time the sharks got close enough to bite him, the green beast using the power and speed granted to him by the sixth gate to propel himself right between the attacking sharks up and through the surface of the water, landing comfortably on top of the water release created river as the sharks crashed into each other.

_'Phew, that was a close call.' _Gai thought with relief.

"I t-thought you said it was rude to t-turn your back on an oppponent." sounded a raggard but taunting voice from behind the green beast of konoha, a voice he now knew all too well. Gai, surprised by how close the voice sounded quickly jumped away and distanced himself while swivelling around to face his enemy.

"N-Naruto-kun, you're..." Gai trailed off as he witnessed the blonde's physical condition.

To say Naruto was ruffed up would amount to a gross understatement. His left arm was hanging limp on his side and looked completely dislocated from it's shoulder and elbow joints with a few broken bones too. Half of his Akatsuki cloak was missing and his body was full of bruises and lacarations, with a dislocated jaw and and blood leaking out of his mouth.

_'What incredible pain tolerance for someone of his age, no, for even an adult. It's almost as if he doesn't even feel the pain. How was he able to substitute himself with a clone in that second that I was blinded by the dust and debris and than go on to perform an S-class and A-rank water technique without a water source, all in that condition!' _Gai thought in disbelief.

"You look like you just saw a ghost, Gai-san." Naruto stated matter of factly.

"You should give up and surrender yourself, there's nothing you can do in your condition." Gai said, now adopting a dead serious expression.

"Hehehe! I don't think so." Naruto said, placing his right hand into a one handed ram hand sign.

_'One handed hand seals! So that's how he was able to use jutsu! This kid, he has to be the greatest genius I have ever heard of, even some Kages are unable to use one handed seals, especially not for techniques of that magnitude!' _Gai, thought in surprise, bracing himself to deal with whatever the blonde planned to throw at him as Naruto's chakra surged.

_'W-what is he planning to do...no way!' _a stupified Gai watched in amazement as the blonde Uzumaki's wounds started healing themselves rapidly, first his jaw snapping back into place, than his shoulder and elbow followed by the lacaration and bruises all over his body seemingly disappearing right before Gai's eyes.

_'No! This is no time to be surprised! I have to stop him before he finishes healing himself!' _Gai thought frantically, rushing the blonde with incredible speed only to be cut off by a five gluttonous sharks combination. The sharks having regenerated their wounds and resuming their assault on the green beast, the sharks effectively pushing Gai back and away from his target with a series of fast and co-ordinated attacks.

**"Morning Peacock!" **Gai shouted as, once again his fists were ignited with violent flames, destroying all five sharks with devastating effect, the super hot flames evaporating the sharks almost instantly.

Regaining his bearings and moving out of the steam, Gai came to a sudden halt in surprise as he saw the blonde, now having discarded his torn Akatsuki cloak, looking as good as knew, as if he never went into battle in the first place.

"High speed self regeneration, or self healing, that's one of my special abilties." Naruto explained simply.

"T-that's impossible, there's only one ninja I know of that can is capable of something like that. Y-you...did she...?"

"Oh no no no, I have no association with her, I've never even met Tsunade of the Sannin." Naruto said dismissively.

_'Though, I guess I will meet her very soon before her death.' _Naruto thought with amusment.

"Self-healing huh? It doesn't matter, all I have to do is knock you unconsious long enough for me to restrict your movements. Healing yourself won't magically grant you equivalent speed and power to me, not in this sixth gate state at least." Gai declared confidently.

"Heh...? You really think so, we'll see about that." said Naruto, quickly placing his hand in another ram seal, this time, a two handed one as various seal markings appeared all over his body.

**"Gravity Seal, Release!" **Naruto shouted, releasing a small, well, relatively small pulse of chakra as a small shock wave washed over his immediate vicinity, the markings on his body retreating into a circular diagram on his belly before the whole thing disappeared altogether.

"This is a jutsu that was forbidden even within the Uzumaki clan. The seal increases the level of gravity that each body part constantly experiences. As you can imagine. This technique was designed to help increase the over all speed and power of an individual. But, even with the Uzumaki clan's durability, stamina, and rapid recovery or healing, the side effects were so severe that the jutsu itself was labelled as an S-rank forbidden jutsu." Naruto said as Gai listened attentatively, hoping that the info would reveal something that would help him to attain victory.

"But, in every clan, although everyone carries the same blood, some inherit specific talents to a greater degree than their kinsman, and also inherit others to a lessor degree. For example, a member of my clan might have a quicker recovery than I do, but weaker chakra or smaller chakra reserves, etcetera etcetera. Now I, Gai-san, have inherted the body and recovery rate higher than any clansman before me, that is why I can use this technique without any side effects. I have the ultimate body. Up until now, I've been hindered by a gravitational level five times that everyone else experiences, can you imagine how fast and strong I will be now that I have released the seal, huh, Gai-san?" Naruto asked with a confident and taunting smile.

_'Damn it!' _Gai thought with concern and frustration.

_'Looks like I have no choice but to open the seventh gate!' _Gai thought with determination, once again, crossing his arms in front of his face.

**"The Seventh Gate: ****Kyomon! Release!" **Gai shouted, the intensity of his chakra activity shooting up even further.

_'He quickly released another gate to counter my gravity seal release, I guess he's not taking any chances any more. Still, that should be as far as he can go, if he releases another gate, it will mean certain death without question.' _Naruto thought analytically.

_'I can't keep the gates open for too long, I'll have to end this quickly or else I'm going to die here. Hokage-sama, please forgive me!' _Gai thought with a sombre expression as he extended his right arm palm forward before tapping it with his left hand and closing the hand into a fist.

**"The Seventh Gate: Afternoon Tiger!" **Gai anounced as he released the air pressure caused by the speed of his fist thrust, the air pressure taking the form of a gigantic tiger's face as the jutsu flew at the blonde with devastating speed, width, and power. Plowing through the surface and destroying everything in it's surroundings.

_'A long range and wide range taijutsu attack, he plans to counter against my speed with this jutsu doesn't he? It's too wide for me to dodge, too high for me to jump over, and too destructive for me to counter with earth ninjutsu. I never would have thought that he had such a technique. Certainly, the bounty on his head should be much higher than it is, certainly much higher than Asuma's.' _Naruto thought, with instantaneous speed and reflexes pulling out his gunbai and placing it in a shielding position in front of his body.

**"Gunbai Barrier Technique!" **Naruto said, channeling chakra into his battle arrangement fan as a circular, transparent barrier activated instantly and surrounded his body protectively. Gai's technique collided with the barrier violently only a split second later, the jutsu exploding on contact and destroy a large portion of the forest in the process, dust and debris flying all over the battleground.

_'That should do it, I only hope that he managed to survive that jutsu, unlikely__as it is.' _Gai thought.

"Is that all you've got, Gai-san!" Naruto asked as he flew out of the dust screen at inhuman speeds, appearing in front of Gai in the blink of an eye and swinging his fan in a horizontal arc, seemingly prefering to dismember his opponents at the waist as he went for the same killing blow he tried to administer earlier on Sarutobi Asuma.

_'Kuso, I won't be able to move out of the way in time!' _Gai thought frantically.

"Game over!" Naruto declared as his wind infused gunbai sliced clean through the green beast's waist without resistence, only for the fallen body parts to turn into splinters of wood right in front of his eyes.

_'Substitution technique?' _Naruto thought with a little surprise.

_'This guy, he used the aftermath of my afternoon tiger as a smoke screen to mask his attack pattern and used his speed to catch me off guard even in my seventh gate state. I can't believe he is faster than me even in this form, what insane speed and reflex abilities. But still, how did he survive my jutsu without even sustaining any damage, that should be impossible, the only jutsu capable of doing that is Yondaime-sama's __**telportation barrier. **__Guess I'll have to change tactics than.'_Gai thought as he tried to sneak up on the blonde from behind, using his ultra fast speed to catch the Uzumaki heir off guard, failing to figure out that the blonde was a sensor type. Although to be fair, the blonde never mentioned it or by any means made it easy to discern.

_'This is it! I have to end it now!' _Gai thought with determination.

**"Compressed Afternoon Tiger!" **Gai whispered from behind the blonde. This time, rather than to release the jutsu at long range, the jutsu was contained and compressed around his right fist and delivered at close range.

_'Hehe! Gotcha!' _Naruto thought, swivelling around with super speed and once again placing his gunbai in a defensive position in front of his body.

**"Gunbai Reflection!" **Naruto anounced, once again, a split second before Gai's attack connected.

Gai expected for his attack to tear through the gunbai and connect with his target, one can imagine the surprise on his face when the opposite happened. The attack not only did not penetrate, but was absorbed into the fan and the full force of the technique returned back to him from point blank range, the jutsu tearing his arm into chunks of meat and bone splinters before connecting with his actual body. Gai's body was flung away violently, crashing into the ground in an awkward body angle with his body digging a long and deep trench into the ground.

_'Kuso! I think I've broken every single bone in my body, even some of my internal organs are crushed beyond repair. Damn, is this how I am going to die? I...I guess it's over, at least I can't complain, I have someone who will carry the legacy of the green beast. Lee, my beloved student, I know you'll surpass me...and...I'm proud of...you.' _Gai thought before taking his last breathe.

_'I can no longer detect any chakra activity inside his body, he's dead. But...just to make sure.' _Naruto thought, standing over the green beast's corpse as he prepared to decapitate the dead man with his gunbai.

_'What...! What is this...how did she...!' _a shocked Naruto thought fearfully, finding himself ensnared in a bone crushing hug from behind.

"Naruto-kun! Sochi, it really is you isn't it, I can tell, it's really you!" an angelic voice cried from behind the blonde, her cheek rubbing against the blonde Uzumaki's hair with motherly affection.

_'How is this possible? I didn't even sense her chakra, I still can't sense it!' _Naruto thought with confusion and fear in his eyes.

**End of Chapter**

**Title Of Next Chapter: **Mother/Son Reunion.


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